Muse interviews... Celianna

The main function of this blog is to doll out advice to fellow designers on how to deliver enjoyable games. However, I believe it's equally important to recognize, applaud, and (most importantly) listen with open ears to those hard-workers within our community who, simply put, are doing things right.

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This time around I got a chance to interview Celianna, a talented developer and active poster over at the RMVX Community. She's known for her amazing original artwork, which she regularly distributes for public use, and her delightfully innovative game, Tailor Tales. If you haven't heard of the project, click the link and check it out! It's definitely done a lot to inspire my own World's Dawn.

On to the interview!

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! Let's get started... 

How did you initially get into game development?

Well, after playing Animal Crossing in which you could draw your own clothes and townspeople would wear it, I wanted to make something that revolved around you making clothing. I didn't know about VX back then. Frustrated because I had no outlet to express this idea, I entered "NaNoWriMo" (National Novel Writing Month) instead, and wrote a story about a character called Joselina who was a tailor and moved into town. After about 7000 words, I realized this wasn't working out and I stopped. Later on someone PM'd me on YouTube saying that instead of using Photoshop to create Pretty Ore (my Harvest Moon animation series), why didn't I use RPG Maker VX instead? This introduced me to VX, and I realized I found the perfect way to express my tailoring idea.

Speaking of Pretty Ore, and also the work you do as a signmaker student... How does creating interactive media differ from these more static forms of artistic expression?

It's a lot more fun. After knowing how to use the program, I could see endless possibilities of gameplay features that I could create, while incorporating static artwork. First I think in pictures; how would this look like? Then the design element comes into play. Once that's done, I just have to make it work in the game, which usually doesn't take long. I either event it, or use scripts to help me. Either way, it's not much different from each other, a lot of work is required for both of them!

Your original artwork, ranging from tilesets to character portraits, is simply stunning. What kind of artistic background do you have?

Uhh ... I'm completely self-taught, but I started to seriously draw when I was 12 years old. I was a big fan of Dragonball Z at the time, and started to make fanart of the characters. I even started to make websites revolving around the characters of Dragonball Z, and since the website needed to look pretty, I started designing as well. Last but not least, I wrote fanfiction about it as well, which laid down the foundation of my creative abilities; drawing, designing and writing! About two years ago I started working on Photography as well, and gotten pretty good at it. Here's a pretty cool time-line of my drawings.

Give us a brief rundown of your current project, Tailor Tales.

Tailor Tales is a romance game similar to Harvest Moon. You play as a girl who is a tailor, and make your own clothes. There's five bachelors in town that you can woo and marry. The whole game is heavily influenced by Harvest Moon, so I try to make the two alike as much as possible (artwork and all). Since it's all custom artwork, it's taking a while for me to even get started on the actual game process. But it's getting there, slowly. 

On top of the work you do for your own project, you pour time and effort into providing wisdom and resources to VX users. How important to you is giving back to the community?

Very important! I believe that if you take something from the community, you should give something as well. I've had multiple custom scripts made for me by a bunch of people on RMVX, and I will gladly return the favour for them. I can't do any scripting, but I can make anything that can be saved as a picture! When I see the need for a specific resource, I usually start working on something (faceset generator, more trees, etc). It also helps I really like making them, and enjoy seeing them used. 

You're very outspoken when it comes to people asking "stupid questions". What's the right way to go about requesting your help or advice from the community in general?

When I say stupid questions, it usually means that that person would have found the answer already if he had searched for it, read a description, or found a tutorial. I get a lot of ... blunt questions. Because of this, I tend to have VERY detailed descriptions on some of my resources, so that I won't have to keep answering the same question over and over again. I even create tutorials for the people who keep asking me how I do this, how I do that. All because I'd like to avoid having to explain myself multiple times. I could never be a teacher, that's for sure haha. Whenever someone asks me a genuine question, I'll answer gladly.

The right way to ask questions, is to search for it yourself first. Google is your friend, remember that. Also read descriptions of topics (yes, the whole thing) and look at the tutorial section.

You admit you're picky when it comes to the games you play. What titles specifically have inspired you?

Well, Harvest Moon inspired me to make a dating game, but a lot better (their dating sucks). I also get inspired by games with great artwork, such as LoZ: Wind Waker. That's a fantastic looking game. I am pretty picky of games, but this is mostly about MMORPGs. I love playing them, but I have tried about a 100 different ones, and like only about 4. It's mostly because they're all the same and never bring anything new to the table.

Any final tips or advice you'd like to offer aspiring game designers?

Use your common sense before asking a question, go through tutorials to learn the program, and try to give something back when you're using someone else's resource!

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Thanks again to Celianna for her time and helpful insight. When you get a chance, head over to the Tailor Tales website and show her some support. She'd do the same for you!